


Persistent Lion

by AnselaJonla



Series: Prompt fills [32]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, reddit writingprompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21980287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnselaJonla/pseuds/AnselaJonla
Summary: A fic written for a prompt on the r/WritingPrompts subreddit:[WP] Your young daughter has found a kitten and she wants to keep it. Only it's a baby mountain lion and no matter which wildlife society you give it to, it turns up later in your daughter's room.
Series: Prompt fills [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1097823
Kudos: 2





	Persistent Lion

I hear a piercing squeal and a loud thud that marks my daughter's awakening. She sounds happy, which means that _it_ is back again. That damned devil lion.

It all started four months ago. Charlie came home with a little kitten, begging me to let her keep it. Unfortunately it was _clearly_ a mountain lion cub, one barely weaned from its mother's milk. As a responsible father I could not let her keep it, so I took it to a wildlife sanctuary. It absolutely broke her heart, but a cougar is a wild animal and a predator, and it's just not _safe_ to keep around my eight year old baby. She screamed and cried, and declared that she hated me and wished I was dead, before slamming her bedroom door and refusing to leave her room for the rest of the day.

The spotted menace was back in Charlie's room in the morning, much to her delight.

And that has repeated itself over and over again, ever since. I get rid of the beast, a task which gets more and more difficult as it grows, Charlie throws a temper tantrum, and the next morning she wakes up to find it sleeping on the end of her bed. Even when I took it up to Wyoming, my mother phoned me in the morning to inform me that the stupid cat had returned before I could.

Honestly, I'm just about ready to give up. Not only is the cat weird and _obviously_ not normal, but my daughter is also beginning to do... strange things. I swear last week she was reading a book without even touching it. Not to mention the string of extremely bad luck that one of the school bullies has been experiencing lately. Plus I've just about exhausted all of the places I can take the animal to.

I wish her mum was still here. She'd know what to say, what to do, who to speak to to make sense of all this.

I hear footsteps coming down the hall, accompanied by the soft padding of four massive paws. I pull a haunch of raw meat out of the fridge, and set it on the floor next to Charlie's usual seat. I might not _like_ my daughter's new "pet", but that doesn't mean I have to let it starve.

"Dad, dad, _dad_ , Nala came back. I _told you_ she would, but you didn't believe me."

I sigh and put a bowl of cereal in front of her. "I know, darling. How about this time... we let Nala stay. But _you_ have to make sure she behaves herself, and that she's housetrained. I am _not_ dealing with a litter box of that size."

Charlie squeals again, and leaps out of her chair to hug me.

"Thank you daddy, thank you thank you thank you!"

I swear, the lion looked pleased as well. Did it... understand what was going on?

Maybe, one day, I'll understand all this.


End file.
